The present invention relates to wire articles and methods of manufacturing wire articles. In particular, the present invention relates to wire articles manufactured by processes that include a combination of tempering and plating.
Wire is used to form a variety of industrial products, such as springs, wire screens, and cable. Accordingly, different types of wire are manufactured through different processes, each of which affect the physical properties of the wire (e.g., tensile strength, surface qualities, and other metallurgic properties). For example, wire may be tempered, which involves a series of heating and cooling steps to obtain desired martensitic properties of the wire (e.g., hardness, ductility, and tensile strengths).
Oil tempering is the most common tempering technique used to manufacture wire. Oil tempering involves cold drawing the wire down to a desired size, and then heat tempering the wire in a furnace with lead. While this process provides wire with acceptable martensitic properties, the resulting wire is also oily, which reduces the aesthetic qualities of the wire.
A common drawback with tempered wire is that the resulting wire exhibits an unfinished surface. This reduces the aesthetic qualities of the wire and leaves the wire exposed to rusting, which may decrease the life of the wire. Nonetheless, tempered wire currently used in the industry is not plated with a finished surface. Accordingly, there is a need for a process to manufacture wire that combines the martensitic properties of tempering and the finished surfaces obtained by plating.